RHYME, in poetry, the correspond ence of sounds in the last words or sylla• tiles of verses. The latter is the true rhyme of modern European languages. There are rhymed verses in the Latin classical poets, where the jingle seems intentional, and more distinct examples of it in the fragments of Roman military songs, Ac., which have come down to us. But in the earlier period of the decay of the Latin language, when accent was sub stituted for metre in the rhythmical ar rangement of the verse, rhyme made its way into the composition of church hymns, &e. It has been attempted with little success, to deduce this innovation from the Goths, and from the Arabians; but the former, like the old Teutonic races, probably used alliteration, but no rhyme in their verses; and the latter could not have influenced European literature until a period long after that, in which rhyme first appears. A rhyme in which the final syllables only agree (strain, com plain,) is called a male rhyme ; one in which the two final syllables of each verse agree, the last being short (motion, ocean,) female ; and the latter is some times extended in Italian poetry to three syllables (fottore, immemore,) when the verse is called sdrucciolo. In English such a license is hardly permissible, ex cept in burlesque poetry (see Hu.dibras
and Don .Tuan for instances ) By the strict rules of French prosody, the male and female species of rhymes must be alternately used, however intricate the disposition of the verse may be ; although the last short syllable is generally mute. or very slightly sounded. Rhymes which extend not only beyond the three lost syllables, but through the whole struc ture of the lines, are used in Arabian and Pershm poetry. Rhymes in which the consonants of the last syllable in each verse are identical, (dress, address,) are vicious in English, but rather admired in French poetry. One more singularity of English poetry deserves notice : while, from the irregularity of our spelling„ many syllables rhyme with each other, althongh widely dissimilar in orthography (woo, pursue.) there are, on the other hand, rhymes which speak to the eye, and not to the ear ; i. e., in which the orthography of the rhyming syllables is the same, but the prownwiation different; as, wind, find; gone, alone. This is a license only admissible by pre cedent.
It ll VD 0 NE'T A, in ancient that part of the science which prescribed the laws of rhyme, or what appertained to the rhythmic ;irt.